Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Coping with a capped elbow

From: Connie

My horse has developed a capped elbow. I understand that I can put a shoe boil boot/donut on his fetlock to prevent him from hitting his elbow again. 2 questions: 1) Which leg does the donut go on? The leg with the injured elbow? Or, the hind leg on the same side as the injured elbow? 2) Any ideas where I can buy the donut? I've been unsuccessful in my web searches.

Thanks, Connie

Hi Connie! The shoe boil boot should go on the leg with the capped elbow, because the cause of the capped elbow is the shoe on a particular foreleg coming into contact with the elbow of the same foreleg when the horse is lying down. The hind leg isn't involved.

You should be able to find a shoe boil boot, which does indeed look like a big rubber doughnut, in almost any veterinary or farm/ranch catalogue, as well as in the usual saddlery/tack catalogues. It won't be terribly expensive. Dover Saddlery, for instance, carries shoe boil boots for around $20. You can order one yourself, or ask the staff at your local tack shop to get one for you. That's something that most shop owners are willing to do, even if the item you want is not something that the store normally carries. (Dover's number is 1-800-989-1500.)

For horses that are trimmed and shod normally, a shoe boil would be an unusual occurrence, but shoe boils are much more common when horses' hooves are kept excessively long and when they wear layers of pads under their shoes. Horses with too-long feet and heavily-padded shoes are most at risk. Other horses can develop capped elbows and hocks because of poor stable management. Lying on hard ground can promote the development of both - and I've seen many more capped elbows and hocks in the last ten years, because of a combination of good will and ignorance on the part of horse owners and stable managers. Some people believe that using rubber mats in stalls means that there is little or no bedding required, but this is not true. The stalls will be easier to clean if there are mats under the bedding, and it is sometimes possible to use less bedding, but in no case should the stall be bare, nor should the "bedding" consist of a light sprinkling of shavings over the top of the stall mats. Even if the mats are thick and cushiony, there should still be at least a 4" to 6" layer of absorbent bedding between the horse and the mats.

Good luck, and remember that a capped elbow, although unsightly, is just a blemish, not an unsoundness!

Jessica

Materials from Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE, The Newsletter of Holistic Horsemanship® may be distributed and copied for personal, non-commercial use provided that all authorship and copyright information, including this notice, is retained. Materials may not be republished in any form without express permission of the author.

Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org

Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.